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Not exactly about Civil War Preservation, but interesting none the less
A place worth saving
By David Slade
The Post and Courier
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Philip Simmons, a Charleston craftsman whose ornamental ironwork can be found in national museums, lives to this day in a modest house on Charleston's East Side, next to the blacksmith's shop where he produced his famous gates and railings.
Feral cats roam the dirt-and-brick yard, and a steady clank comes from the tin-roofed workshop — the sound of a century-old hammer striking iron, as Simmons' cousin Carlton makes an ornamental fish that will be offered to tourists for $175.
Simmons, who celebrated his 95th birthday Saturday, still owns his home and his workshop, but today the National Trust for Historic Preservation will name the property one of America's 11 most-endangered historic places, and the only South Carolina site on the list.
Unlike other properties on the list that are vacant or threatened with imminent development, Simmons' property is on the list essentially due to a lack of estate planning, in order to help the foundation that bears his name raise money.
"What we're hoping that this listing will do is help the Philip Simmons Foundation to raise funds to purchase the site," said Carrie Johnson, special projects director of the National Trust.
"The threat to the property right now is that it needs to be stabilized," she said. "It seems that Mr. Simmons does not have the resources."
The property at 30 1/2 Blake St. shares the street with a handful of houses that are boarded up or occupied but in need of repair.
The Simmons property, and all of the houses on his block, face the blank rear wall of Trident Technical College's Palmer Campus.
It's nothing fancy, to be sure, but Simmons' workshop attracts busloads of tourists every day, and schoolchildren on field trips.
He'll greet them and tell them about how his grandmother sent him from rural Daniel Island to Charleston at the age of 8 to get an education, and how he became an apprentice at 13 to blacksmith Peter Simmons (no relation), a former slave who had learned the craft from his father, Guy Simmons.
He'll tell them how he learned to make horseshoes but focused on iron gates and stair railings and window grills after the automobile "put the horses out of business."
"This shop has served four generations," said Simmons, who spent decades training his nephew Joseph Pringle, 63, and cousin Carlton Simmons, 47, to take over the work that he can no longer do himself.
According to the National Trust, "the modest buildings that comprise his home and workshop need to be secured, preserved and adapted for educational purposes. In addition, while there have been efforts to catalogue and document Simmons' work, his legacy is vulnerable because of a lack of documentation, interpretation, funding, estate planning and even severe weather."
Rossie Coulter, a friend who heads up the Philip Simmons Foundation, said the foundation hopes to raise about $500,000 to buy the properties from Simmons, and allow him to live there as long as he's able.
"It would be a place where people could study the old way of ironwork and apprentice with Joseph and Carlton," she said.
During a visit Wednesday, Simmons seemed only vaguely aware of the plan, or the National Trust press conference scheduled this afternoon at his home, but said any decision made by the Philip Simmons Foundation would be fine with him.
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/..._worth_saving/ (Has picture of Mr. Simmons)
A place worth saving
By David Slade
The Post and Courier
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Philip Simmons, a Charleston craftsman whose ornamental ironwork can be found in national museums, lives to this day in a modest house on Charleston's East Side, next to the blacksmith's shop where he produced his famous gates and railings.
Feral cats roam the dirt-and-brick yard, and a steady clank comes from the tin-roofed workshop — the sound of a century-old hammer striking iron, as Simmons' cousin Carlton makes an ornamental fish that will be offered to tourists for $175.
Simmons, who celebrated his 95th birthday Saturday, still owns his home and his workshop, but today the National Trust for Historic Preservation will name the property one of America's 11 most-endangered historic places, and the only South Carolina site on the list.
Unlike other properties on the list that are vacant or threatened with imminent development, Simmons' property is on the list essentially due to a lack of estate planning, in order to help the foundation that bears his name raise money.
"What we're hoping that this listing will do is help the Philip Simmons Foundation to raise funds to purchase the site," said Carrie Johnson, special projects director of the National Trust.
"The threat to the property right now is that it needs to be stabilized," she said. "It seems that Mr. Simmons does not have the resources."
The property at 30 1/2 Blake St. shares the street with a handful of houses that are boarded up or occupied but in need of repair.
The Simmons property, and all of the houses on his block, face the blank rear wall of Trident Technical College's Palmer Campus.
It's nothing fancy, to be sure, but Simmons' workshop attracts busloads of tourists every day, and schoolchildren on field trips.
He'll greet them and tell them about how his grandmother sent him from rural Daniel Island to Charleston at the age of 8 to get an education, and how he became an apprentice at 13 to blacksmith Peter Simmons (no relation), a former slave who had learned the craft from his father, Guy Simmons.
He'll tell them how he learned to make horseshoes but focused on iron gates and stair railings and window grills after the automobile "put the horses out of business."
"This shop has served four generations," said Simmons, who spent decades training his nephew Joseph Pringle, 63, and cousin Carlton Simmons, 47, to take over the work that he can no longer do himself.
According to the National Trust, "the modest buildings that comprise his home and workshop need to be secured, preserved and adapted for educational purposes. In addition, while there have been efforts to catalogue and document Simmons' work, his legacy is vulnerable because of a lack of documentation, interpretation, funding, estate planning and even severe weather."
Rossie Coulter, a friend who heads up the Philip Simmons Foundation, said the foundation hopes to raise about $500,000 to buy the properties from Simmons, and allow him to live there as long as he's able.
"It would be a place where people could study the old way of ironwork and apprentice with Joseph and Carlton," she said.
During a visit Wednesday, Simmons seemed only vaguely aware of the plan, or the National Trust press conference scheduled this afternoon at his home, but said any decision made by the Philip Simmons Foundation would be fine with him.
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/..._worth_saving/ (Has picture of Mr. Simmons)